News

As part of the celebration for the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary, Square Enix brought in a wide array of artists to create an album celebrating the music of the series up to now. This is not exactly new news, though I believe we missed it in tidbits around the time that it was announced in October. The album was released last week, though, and to promote it a bit more, Square Enix Music posted this medley video to YouTube earlier this week, with samples of a large number of the tracks.

There's a lot of variety on show in this video, and it really makes for some fresh takes on some of the Final Fantasy music that we've heard for many, many years. It's piqued my interest, so I took some time to try to find some English-language shops that sell the double disc; while AmaCoN looked a bit pricey, I found that another of our shop affiliates, Play Asia, has the set for $35.00 including free shipping. If the video makes you want this for Christmas or... New Year's (?), hit that link right away.

Source: Square Enix YouTube, Destructoid

In what is turning out to be a great month for mobile Final Fantasy gamers, Square Enix has announced that the recent FFIV 3D remake, previously available only on the Nintendo DS, will be released for all iOS devices on December 20th with an expected price tag of $17.99. The title has been confirmed for Android devices as well, though the release date is left unspecified as sometime next year.

Apparently, in anticipation of the upcoming release, SE is cutting back the prices of their other mobile offerings a bit, so you may want to check out your app store before then.

Source: engadget.com

Just as week after Airborne Brigade was announced for North America, mobile gamers have more to look forward to: Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy, that game you still can't spell, has been made available for iOS worldwide.

The game will be free to play, though it looks like a lot of the content is to be obtained by paid download. No word on whether it'll appear for Android, though it's certainly possible given that Airborne Brigade will be appearing on that platform as well.

Source: squareportal.net

"We won't make a mistake like FFXIV again - if we did, it would be like at the level of destroying the company."

That's the buzz quote coming from a Kotaku interview last week with A Realm Reborn: FFXIV producer Naoki Yoshida. The revised version, first announced last summer and officially shut down until re-release a month ago, has been a headache since its inception. We've all heard lately how much of a blunder Square Enix's recent MMO attempt turned out to be, and we all knew Yoshida certainly has his hands full, but this admittance - coming from a big player int he company - shows the company as in deeper trouble than any of the comments preceding it.

On a more hopeful note, Yoshida speaks of his efforts to turn around FFXIV with competency and no hesitance towards calling out past mistakes, particularly the company's failure to survey and emulate the contemporary MMO landscape. By failing to do this the first time around, Yoshida says the team behind FFXIV failed to create anything more than an out-of-date rehashing of FFXI. He also says that under his watch - unlike last time, when a half-finished project was rushed into release - the game won't be released until it is completely ready, so as to ensure its success.

Who knows, Yoshida might just pull off a resurrection; he's confident enough, and Square Enix certainly has high hopes pinned on the guy. Because, you know, nobody wants to destroy the company.

Source: Kotaku

I couldn't help it, ok? Ahem. In exciting news, Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade has finally been announced for the US and Canada. The game, for Android and iOS mobile devices, is a free-to-play social RPG where players interact with each other and team up to defeat enemies. Airsihps and chocobos, unsurprisingly, feature prominently. The title has been successful in both Korea and Japan for about a year now, so the announcement, which came earlier today, was anticipated.

The game's art style is notable (read: cute), and has been featured in the Kingdom Hearts mobile series as well as Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.

Characters from throughout the Final Fantasy series (including Tactics, Type-0, sequels and spinoffs) appear in the game as 'Legends' who can be used like summons/espers for a special attack. A 'free 3-month exclusive Cloud Strife in-game card' will be given to anyone who pre-registers, allowing players to summon the FFVII-favorite to their aid. There are 52 Legends thus far, including all main heroes/heroines and most of the series' iconic villains. The game also uses a class system featuring 29 jobs, most of which are found in FFV.

The second source is also the page for pre-registration, for anyone who is interested.

Source: Square Enix, Official Airborne Brigade site

Strike that - now we do! At their Open Conference in Tokyo this past weekend, Square Enix presented a list of the five qualities that make a Final Fantasy game a Final Fantasy game:

• Magic
• Summoning
• Gorgeous Beauty
• Refinement
• Change and Challenge

To most of us, I think, this list is rather... odd, if not optimistic. Duh, there's magic. But no moogles? Certainly no one is getting subtlety points for 'gorgeous beauty.' And, depending on one's interpretation, 'change and challenge' certainly seems arguable. 3, 2, 1, discuss!

At the same conference, Square Enix gave a look at an extended version of Agni's Philosophy, the real-time tech demo for Square Enix's new Luminous Engine. Since this extended version is still unavailable to the public (though the original is included in the second link below), I quote from kotaku: "Not only is every individual hair on their bodies being rendered in real-time but also the hairs are moving in accordance with the wind and movement of the animal. More than that, you can see the animal's refection in a pool of water-an image that is a real-time copy of what the animal is doing-that is distorted due to the depth and clarity as well as the movement of the water. But what's truly amazing about this is not only that it is being rendered in this way but also that it can be changed drastically with a click of the mouse."

Finally, a bit of old news that didn't quite warrant its own post. Two weeks ago, Final Fantasy XIV servers were officially shut down, to be rebooted with the launch of A Realm Reborn: Final Fantasy XIV, which we reported earlier this summer (release date sometime this winter). Square Enix scheduled a major 'final' battle and cinematic sequence, but many players weren't able to actually participate due to server disconnections. Looks like Square Enix will have one more thing to add to the "to do" list.

Source: Kotaku, Kotaku, Kotaku